A potential target presents itself early. An ally is guided out of our system back to empire space by a colleague, and on the way out he spies a Helios on a wormhole. As usual, I jump in to my Onyx heavy interdictor, and Fin accompanies me in her Nighthawk fleet command ship. A fleet is made, ships readied, and we warp out of our tower to our static wormhole. The scout ahead of us, still heading out to empire space, notes the appearance and disappearance of a Drake battlecruiser and a shuttle too, so we're no quite sure what we are going to encounter. But whatever it is, we feel ready.

With some ship movements occuring it is probably best to check the wormholes our scan man has already mapped out. We warp to one that heads further in to w-space, my Onyx dropping on top of it and the Nighthawk landing 50 km out. There are no ships on the wormhole, so I jump through to see what's on the other side. I find a Drake. The Caldari battlecruiser is sitting a few kilometres off the wormhole, clearly looking for trouble. No doubt he has just seen the first sign, the flare of the wormhole as I jump through, and he's not moving. I call the Nighthawk in and Fin burns towards the wormhole as quickly as she can as I hold my cloak as long as I can. The Drake has no idea what has jumped through yet, and I imagine my appearance will come as a surprise.

Fin calls out the status of her approach to the wormhole. As she jumps I decloak, target the Drake, and activate the HIC's warp bubble, the Nighthawk quickly joining me. Predictably, the Drake jumps through the wormhole to try to avoid us, so we both jump back. Both my Onyx and the Nighthawk are now polarised, meaning that we cannot pass through the wormhole again for a few minutes because of the quick sequential jumps, but the Drake doesn't look like he is taking advantage of this fact. Maybe he is polarised too, or is unaware of the mechanics, and although I bump him with my Onyx to try to keep him out of range of the wormhole he seems to be moving away from it anyway. Either way, we are in combat, all ships targeted and missiles burning through shields.

The Drake has an impressive regenerative shield, and although our two ships are making a significant dent in its defences we are uncertain whether we can break the tank. We call for extra DPS and a colleague prepares a Zealot heavy assault ship to join us, whilst the Drake pilot engages in jet-can-renaming smack-talk. I don't care much for this, merely renaming the jet-can 'I like kittens'. Fin thinks she sees the wormhole flare but no ships join the fray, and we are both aware that the Drake could be calling in his own reinforcements. Indeed, a little while in to the fight a Hyperion battleship appears about 50 km from the wormhole, but we don't know where he comes from and he isn't in the same corporation as the Drake. We initially pay it no mind, concentrating on the Drake, and although the battleship takes a couple of pot-shots at us it soon warps away. And then our Zealot turns up.

Adding the Zealot's weapons to our own destroys the Drake's shields, and the armour and structure soon follows. The Drake pilot drops another jet-can, mocking us for needing three ships to defeat him, as if we are going to be embarrassed in to disengaging. Instead, we blow up his battlecruiser and then pod him for good measure. Hmm, this might have been a good time to try to ransom his pod to earn some piratical ISK, but I tend to get carried away. We loot the wreck and destroy the evidence, then think about finding that Hyperion. It is likely that it came through the low-sec exit, as there is no sign of it in neighbouring w-space systems. Checking the other exits and wormholes reveals no more ships and we return home, pausing briefly to try to locate a different Drake that disappears quite effectively from d-scan.

It is interesting to see that we have gone from running away from most fights to actively seeking out and hunting other capsuleers in w-space. Neither myself or Fin flinched when the Hyperion turned up and once our primary target was destroyed our first instinct is to find the battleship and engage that too. Life out in w-space is certainly having an effect on our actions and motivations. And not only are we out hunting other pilots but we are doing so in expensive ships, and winning.

One Response to “Disturbing a Drake”

As an commentary, we had just managed to crack the Drake's optimal shield recharge right before the Zealot joined us. On the other hand, it's a good thing the Zealot pilot got there when it did as I managed to mis-click the 'off' switch for the heater and burned out my launchers. :(

Interestingly, the Hype could have joined in killing the Drake for an easy kill or tried to work one of us over, but may have just not been fit for any kind of PVP. I wish it would have stuck around so we could have found out. :)